Bernalillo County outlines spending plan, dashboard timeline for $25.5 million opioid settlement funds
Summary
County officials and the Behavioral Health Advisory Board updated the Local Government Coordinating Commission on opioid settlement allocations, remaining balances and a public accountability dashboard expected to show financials in December and program metrics later.
Bernalillo County officials told the Local Government Coordinating Commission on Oct. 16 that the county has received $25,500,000 in one-time opioid settlement funds and has begun allocating those dollars to treatment, prevention and infrastructure projects.
The county has spent about $1,800,000 so far, has committed roughly $16,800,000 for upcoming requests for proposals and Albuquerque Public Schools programs, and reported about $6,500,000 in unencumbered funds; all the settlement funds are one-time and are expected to be exhausted by 2028.
The money is intended to follow a 60/40 split adopted by joint action earlier this year, allocating 60% to intervention and treatment and 40% to prevention and community revitalization. County officials said the larger implementation plan includes capacity-building dollars, infrastructure grants, and school-based prevention and intervention funding.
“We've received $25,500,000 in one-time opioid settlement funding to the county,” Dr. Wayne Lindstrom said during the presentation, summarizing the county-side totals and noting the city of Albuquerque tracks and spends its settlement money separately.
The implementation plan adopted earlier this year provides funding streams that include $4,000,000 for small and medium provider capacity-building, $10,000,000 for shovel-ready infrastructure grants and a total allocation for Albuquerque Public Schools related prevention and intervention programs; county staff clarified that some of those dollar figures are split between the county and the city.
Holly Mehl, chair of the county's Behavioral Health Advisory Board, and Joseph Shaw, a board member, presented program updates and said the board will advise on performance measures and accountability. The county said its intergovernmental agreement with APS for prevention and intervention services has been executed.
County IT has procured Tableau to host a single public accountability dashboard for Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque and Albuquerque Public Schools. Dr. Lindstrom said the financial portion of that dashboard should be publicly available in December; other performance measures will appear later, after contracts are executed and contractors begin reporting outcomes.
“We will have [the financial portion of] that particular portion of the dashboard available in the month of December,” Dr. Lindstrom said. He added that other performance metrics depend on contract awards and reporting cycles and therefore will be available closer to the end of the fiscal year.
Commissioners and councilors asked for clarity about the slide deck and requested an annotated version showing county-versus-city splits. Commissioner Barbara Baca asked that the reported figures be footnoted to avoid confusion for LGCC members who did not attend.
Questions from commissioners and councilors focused on timeline and transparency: when a public, running tally of awarded, spent and remaining funds will be available; where interim progress reports will appear online; and whether the county and city would coordinate a single landing page for all opioid-settlement materials.
Julie (identified in the meeting as chief operating officer for Bernalillo County) said materials not included in the published meeting packet would be added to the LGCC site on bernco.gov and to the after-action report. City and school partners said they would coordinate to ensure materials are accessible and linked across jurisdictions.
The county said the small- and medium-provider RFP closed Sept. 7 with 21 proposals; APS-related intergovernmental agreements had been executed in August; and infrastructure proposals remain under joint review with the city. County staff said they would update LGCC members as RFP results and contract awards proceed.
Ending: County staff and the Behavioral Health Advisory Board said they will provide quarterly updates to the LGCC and will publish the financial dashboard first, with program-performance reporting to follow once contractor reporting systems are in place.
